Talkin' Rock with Jeff Scott Soto
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00:00Rock, metal, frog, and everything in between.
00:04If you're into rock, you've come to the right place.
00:07Welcome to this episode of Talkin' Rock with Meltdown.
00:11Don't forget to follow the audio-only Talkin' Rock podcast on all podcast platforms.
00:15And now, it's time for today's conversation.
00:18Here's Meltdown.
00:20There he is, looking fancy.
00:22We got the lens cleaned off, we got everything working properly.
00:25How you doing?
00:26I'm doing good, man.
00:27And I'm crazed at the moment with a bunch of sessions.
00:31Last-minute session.
00:32This is crazy.
00:33Sorry to bring this up where we're talking about Art of Anarchy.
00:36I got a last-minute session on Sunday.
00:39I was asked to take a country song and JSS eyes it, turn it into kind of a rock ballad for a friend of mine.
00:47His daughter's getting married in three weeks.
00:48And he asked me last minute if I could do this song.
00:51I'm like, oh, geez.
00:53I'm in the middle of this, this, this, this, and this.
00:55And I said, you know what?
00:57I can do this.
00:58I literally, I burned the midnight oil.
01:00I was up for 24 hours.
01:01I recorded the entire track by myself in this room.
01:04Guitars, bass, strings, keyboards, drums, everything.
01:08And I literally just sang the vocal right now.
01:11I did all of this in the course of 28 hours.
01:14I was up 24 hours working on this track.
01:17I slept, and I finally sang the lead vocal.
01:20I finished literally just in time to get on here with you.
01:23And here we are.
01:24We're going to talk about Art of Anarchy now.
01:25Well, that's cool.
01:26It has to make you feel good to do something like that for somebody you know.
01:30Well, yeah.
01:32And especially the song itself.
01:34I mean, the lyric is really, really heavy.
01:36It's the father-daughter dance.
01:38And the lyrics pertain to the father's love for his daughter.
01:42I mean, I'm weeping when I'm singing these lyrics.
01:45It's so, I mean, I love the song.
01:48And especially for me, it's a challenge to take a country song and kind of make it more
01:52like a rock ballad, which it seems to be easier the other way around, take a rock ballad and
01:56kind of make a country version of it.
01:58So it's really kind of cool to go that route.
02:01And it's funny because the original version is like, it's like really low singing.
02:07And he said, no, no, no, we need to bring it up.
02:09I sent the first take of it because now it needs to be a little higher.
02:12Now it sounds more like a JSS song.
02:14Now, how many session stuff do you do professionally?
02:18How much of that session work do you do?
02:20I'm doing this kind of stuff almost daily.
02:23It comes in all the time.
02:25And, you know, this is my bread and butter.
02:26And it's strange because I used to get criticized back in the day for doing too much with too
02:31many.
02:32And now it seems like the norm.
02:34It seems like everybody's got a super group.
02:36Everybody's doing collaborations.
02:37Everybody, it just seems like everybody's jumping on the bandwagon of, I just want to
02:42stay busy.
02:43I just want to stay creative.
02:44And that was the norm for me, especially during COVID time, during the lockdown, because,
02:48you know, I would have gone crazy if I didn't have this outlet.
02:53I didn't have the creative outlet as a kind of a therapy.
02:56And that's pretty much, I mean, it's kind of a good place to start.
02:59That's pretty much where Art of Anarchy came about.
03:01It was during the lockdown that everybody was like, we don't know how long this is going
03:05to last.
03:06I was catching up with Bumblefoot and it turned into, hey, why don't I throw you some songs?
03:13The band is pretty much defunct right now.
03:16We're not really doing anything, but we're still writing songs.
03:18For what reason?
03:19I don't know.
03:20And it just came about that I brought it up to Ron, like, man, what a pity about this
03:24band.
03:24It was such a great band.
03:25I love the first two records and I would have loved to have heard what my voice would
03:30have sounded like with this band.
03:32And this is before Sons of Apollo was in any danger of ending or anything else was going
03:36on.
03:37It was just, it was just a conversation.
03:39And from that came, Ron just said, hey, let me just send you a couple of songs and see
03:43what it sounds like.
03:44See if there's any kind of chemistry that works between us.
03:46And, and it's, it started with that and we ended up doing like two albums worth of material
03:51that obviously we culminated the best of and what actually would work in terms of an actual
03:57album that turned into Let There Be Anarchy.
03:59So you guys are coming to town at the token lounge coming up on March 27th.
04:03So you're telling me that there's, there's still a lot of stuff that, that you guys haven't
04:07recorded.
04:07Oh no, we recorded it.
04:09We, and the funny thing is these songs on this album are my demo versions.
04:16I never rerecorded anything when, when we worked on them, we chiseled them, worked them
04:19out as I do everything.
04:21I just, I put on my headphones, get on my microphone and I just knocked them out.
04:25I didn't realize those were going to be the masters.
04:27Otherwise I would have gone back and go, Hmm, let me redo a few things now that I know the
04:31song is a little better.
04:32No, the, the, the masters of what you hear is exactly what we carved and created during
04:37the lockdown.
04:38And then some, I mean, there were some songs that were, that were, that came later that
04:42ended up on the album itself.
04:44But again, I think it was, it was mainly that we didn't just want to put a bunch of songs
04:49that we wrote together that we thought were good songs.
04:52We, without putting a concept album or it was more of like a theme came about with the
04:57lyrics, with the, with where we were going and where we all felt at that time.
05:01It seems more that we had to make it more like a theme album, not necessarily a concept
05:07album.
05:07And you'll hear a lot of the lyrics, a lot of the music, a lot of the tendencies are
05:13really aimed towards kind of a common bond, a common goal here.
05:18Yeah.
05:18Let there be anarchy is out right now.
05:19So have you played any of these songs live with the band yet?
05:23We have not.
05:24I, that's what part of what I'm prepping here for.
05:27I'm not only learning my own stuff because I have to be ready to pull this off live.
05:32I'm learning the older stuff that we're going to be pulling off from the, from the first
05:35two albums.
05:35So that's, to me, the hardest part is singing somebody else's legacy, unless I was singing
05:41for journey.
05:42That's, that's a no brainer because I grew up with that.
05:44That's embedded in my brain.
05:46It's embedded in my DNA.
05:47But to actually take songs that I just listened to a few times during the course of a few
05:51years, you know, the, the, the time I've been working with Ron, now I actually have
05:55to learn them and I have to now portray them.
05:59And, and, and my process is as I'm getting older, man, this, this hard drive is just too
06:04full.
06:05I can't remember anything.
06:06So it, there is a process to learning the stuff and, uh, and, and putting my own stamp
06:11on it.
06:11Yeah.
06:12Yeah.
06:12Well, none of us are getting any younger.
06:13I know all the, all the stuff, all the useless information I have seems to take my brain
06:17and it pushes out the good stuff.
06:19Exactly.
06:20And that's, I could, I could sing the first eight queen albums, every journey album, every
06:26Van Halen album that they really were off to the part.
06:28I can sing them all like without even trying or practicing, but you give me something I
06:32have to do that.
06:33I wrote six months ago that I've heard over and over and over and over.
06:35I can't remember a lick.
06:36I can't remember a lyric or a lick that I sang in it.
06:39So are you guys going to get in a room and rehearse obviously before this tour starts, correct?
06:43Yeah.
06:43Yeah.
06:44I leave next Monday, uh, I'm flying back East and we're going to get together and everybody's
06:49doing their homework, getting, getting all their, you know, their information together.
06:52And hopefully when, when we get together, all that information just comes together within
06:57the course of a couple of rehearsals and we're ready to fly.
07:00Now, what is the longest amount of time that you've been in one band?
07:03I would have to say Talisman, the, uh, the Swedish band that I started with my, uh, the
07:09bass player from Yngwie Malmsteen's band back in 1989, close to 1990.
07:14We started that together.
07:15We had pretty much a 19 year tenure.
07:18Uh, it wasn't consistent.
07:20We had breaks in between when, when grunge came around, we, we took a little bit of a
07:24break.
07:24It's like, well, we have no place in music right now.
07:27So we took a break, but the band never split the band, never, it was always, the band was
07:32consistent from the time we started until the God rest his soul until the bass player
07:36Marcel took his own, his own life in 2009.
07:39So that's probably the longest.
07:42The second longest would be Trans-Septemberian Orchestra.
07:44I've been doing TSO for almost 16 years now.
07:46So it's, it's pretty amazing that everybody thinks I'm a one trick pony.
07:50As soon as I joined a band, I'm out, I'm out starting another one two months later, but
07:55that's not the fact.
07:55You know, it's, I, my thing is I jump around more so because others either don't keep the
08:03interest or don't keep the flow of things going and I have to move on.
08:06I have to keep being creative or other things come about that allow me to be continue to
08:11be creative, but they don't necessarily fit in the same timeframe of being able to do other
08:16things.
08:16Some things just kind of fizzled out.
08:18Some things, uh, they were never meant to be serious things that turn into real things
08:23like talisman.
08:23And that was more of a session thing that turned into a 19 year run.
08:27Yeah.
08:27It's funny.
08:28I just talked to a Tommy Clufetis the other day, kind of in the same situation.
08:31He jumps around bands of band to band.
08:33Although I don't think he really recorded as much stuff as you have with bands.
08:37Yeah, it's, it's, it's pretty crazy.
08:39It what's crazy on my end is when I, I just came from the monsters of rock cruise and there
08:44are people that they'd pretty much bring my catalog to, for me to sign.
08:47And you see all the other bands, they sign like three or four, maybe six, seven items.
08:51And then you see a stack of CDs or albums like this.
08:54And I'm like, Oh boy.
08:55And the first thing I do is I apologize.
08:58Like, I'm so sorry.
08:59You had to waste all that hard-earned money on my crap.
09:02Yeah, that's hysterical.
09:06Hey, by the way, before we get into monster rock, cause I was really close to you guys,
09:10but I want to get back to CSO real fast.
09:11So you two are on the West coast and a blaze is one of my friends.
09:15He just loves blaze loves the, he told me how he got into it.
09:18We, we had a whole thing one day in Vegas talking about this and Mariah from plushes
09:23and as on the West coast one as well.
09:25Right.
09:25Tell me about her.
09:26I haven't seen the West coast show, obviously.
09:29Yeah.
09:29She, she's amazing.
09:30Blosses.
09:31I've known Blosses since me, even before Slaughter.
09:34I got kind of a quick, I'll throw in a quick story about me and Bloss Elias in 1987, I think,
09:40or maybe, I think it was 87.
09:42Cause by 88, we were actually on tour in 87.
09:45My best friend, Scott, who lives in Houston, he just moved back to Houston and I was going
09:51out to visit him.
09:51I went out there and we were hanging out and I told him about this, this group I was
09:55with.
09:55It was a guitar player named Cooney, Japanese guitar player.
09:58And he was looking for, we were looking for, to fill up the rhythm section, bass player,
10:02drummer.
10:04Scott told me about a friend of his that told me, told him about a friend of his.
10:09It's a drummer.
10:10Hey, you should come check this guy out.
10:11He's really good.
10:12And I'm like, well, he didn't come out here to audition people, but yeah, let's go check
10:16him out.
10:17We went to his house in his basement and he just starts playing.
10:20I'm like, okay, yeah, that's pretty good.
10:22I've heard it all.
10:23But I haven't, I've seen it, heard it before.
10:25Nothing special.
10:26And I left it at that.
10:27Sorry.
10:27You know, we, we ended up getting Mike Toronto on drums and we moved on with our lives.
10:31A few years later, that drummer was Blas Elias.
10:34I didn't correlate the fact that I missed out on one of the greatest drummers out there
10:38could have actually been in the band with me, but that was my stupidity or maybe my ignorance
10:42that I wasn't in audition mode.
10:45But I kind of, and even Blas, he admits to this day, he goes, dude, I was so nervous.
10:50I probably played like crap and didn't even, didn't put everything into it.
10:54So it's just kind of a fun story to, to, to talk about now, because obviously I've known
10:59him since the slaughter days and now we're actually playing together in TSO.
11:02Yeah.
11:03I think in 2019, he met me at a, at a Chris Angel show.
11:07And then Chris says, I went, I was meeting Chris Angel and he's like, oh, Blas here.
11:11Cause he showed up a little bit later.
11:12I go, yeah.
11:12He goes, well, go get him and bring him back.
11:14So I introduced him and stuff.
11:15But anyways, we went somewhere afterwards, like to eat or whatever.
11:18And I started telling him, I go, dude, I'm so jealous.
11:20Cause you're in a movie with Jennifer Aniston and he's just Googling his phone.
11:22He pulls out a picture of him and Jennifer Aniston.
11:24I'm like, oh my God.
11:25And of course you had a part in that movie too.
11:27So you guys are both kind of in that movie, a rock star.
11:29I didn't even think about that until just this minute.
11:31We are associated in and by so many ways.
11:34It's insane.
11:35It really is insane.
11:36How much I've become the Kevin Bacon of, of the hard rock industry.
11:42You can narrow it down to almost three degrees of separation at this point.
11:46And going back to what we're talking about, all the records and all the things that I've
11:50done, I think I've logged in my, I'm singing lead vocals, not, not bands and albums, but
11:56lead vocals.
11:56Even if you take the rock star soundtrack, for instance, lead vocals on an album, I've
12:00clocked over a hundred albums that my voice is on.
12:03Forget about all the other ones that I'm singing background on or a writer, a producer,
12:07you add all that.
12:08It really is a ridiculous amount of records and, and I'm still poor as hell.
12:14Now, correct me if I'm wrong.
12:16And I'm just a spin off the top of my head.
12:18Was the first one rising force or you were like 20 years old?
12:21No, I was 18, 18.
12:24Wow.
12:24I joined the thing may literally, uh, I think it was like two and a half months before my
12:2919th birthday.
12:30And I recorded the vocals for the two songs that were both the only two vocal songs on
12:35that record.
12:36Uh, the first weekend of September or maybe no, it came out in September recorded in
12:42August of 1984.
12:43This is my 40th anniversary.
12:45This is celebrating 40 years in the industry and it's amazing that that album is 40 years
12:50old as well as my career.
12:53And I, you know, even at my age, I'm an idiot, but at 18, I was really an idiot and you were
12:58on, on a major record with Yngwie Malmsteen.
13:02I mean, that's, that's crazy to think sometimes.
13:04Yeah, it really is.
13:05I pinched myself just wondering how the hell did I even get that gig?
13:09I mean, the, the demo I sent him to, to audition for him, I was 16 on and I was, I was so
13:14green.
13:15I had no experience whatsoever.
13:16I was still in high school when I did that demo, sent it to him and I got the audition
13:20and, and with three weeks of just driving back and forth to his house every day and demoing
13:25up songs that ended up being songs for the marching out album that I eventually got the
13:29gig within a, like a three week period of back and forth.
13:32And he was funny.
13:33He was, he never let up that he was interested that, that I have the gig that maybe he was
13:38looking at other singers.
13:39I was just back and forth, back and forth, just going, geez, I don't know if I have this
13:42gig and it wasn't until like three weeks later, I got a call from the, his manager's assistant
13:47saying, hi, Jeff, I need some information from you for, uh, for the books or whatever.
13:51And, oh, by the way, welcome to the band that inducted me into the band officially.
13:56You know, I think that Yngwie Malmsteen is one guy I've never interviewed.
14:00I've never met and I've never seen live.
14:01So I don't know if just for whatever reason, I, I can't say that there's a reason for that.
14:05It's just the way it worked out in life, I guess.
14:08Some things are better left.
14:09Yeah.
14:10Some stones are better left unturned.
14:12Okay.
14:13Fair enough.
14:14So, uh, so last week, uh, I went down to the keys with my wife.
14:18She threw me this surprise vacation.
14:19Didn't tell me where we're going.
14:20So we went to the keys and the whole thing.
14:21And as I was standing there taking a picture at the Southern most point in, uh, in, in America,
14:27this, uh, this German couple was taking a picture for, for me.
14:31And they told me that they were going on a metal cruise monsters of rock.
14:34I'm like, Oh yeah, that's right.
14:36I know a lot of people are going on monsters of rock.
14:38We were leaving, going back to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday and we're driving through Miami.
14:42We decided to take a detour or whatever.
14:44And I drove over the bridge and I could see the damn cruise ships.
14:47That's how close it was to monsters of rock.
14:50And so I started texting all my friends.
14:51I'm like, you know, Hey, I wish I could go.
14:53I could see you guys.
14:54I see the picture and stuff.
14:55But Don Jameson told me that you did your, was it your first ever standup comedy gig?
15:00Yeah.
15:01Yes.
15:01Don and Courtney, uh, uh, Courtney Cronin Doid.
15:05She was, uh, she's also a comedian and a comic writer.
15:08They basically, they, they interviewed me just as we're doing here.
15:11Kind of, they had set profile, set questions.
15:14And I, by answering enough information, they made a comedy standup routine out of.
15:21It's amazing when you think that's how it's done.
15:23You just take profiling and information based on some questions, kind of like an interview.
15:28And next thing you know, it's in the form of a standup.
15:31And yeah, it was nerve wracking, of course, but, uh, it's, it's, it's just one of those
15:36things.
15:37Actors want to be rock stars.
15:38Rock stars want to be actors.
15:39Comedians want to be rock stars.
15:41We all want to be what we're not.
15:42Right.
15:43We would never leave our day job to pursue it.
15:46Some have, and some shouldn't.
15:49And it was amazing because, uh, they really work with me, uh, with the timing and setting
15:55up the jokes, et cetera, et cetera.
15:56And it really, it was a lot of fun.
15:58You know, uh, Don texted me and said his words, you killed it.
16:02And, uh, you know, that's.
16:03Oh, he's being too kind.
16:04He's just being nice.
16:05Well, you know, that's something I've always wanted to do.
16:08So, so when you're up there on stage and you're talking and stuff, what is the dichotomy
16:11as far as when you're on stage singing or, or, I mean, is it kind of like banter between
16:15songs or what is it like?
16:18Luckily, I've had about five plus years of experience doing, I don't want to say stand
16:23up, but what I did with Jason Beeler from Saigon kick, we do this, uh, acoustic kind
16:27of comedy thing together and the comedy part of it kind of came about organically and not
16:34necessarily on purpose.
16:35He's one of the funniest people on the planet.
16:38He's witty.
16:39He's clever.
16:40Um, he's very smart and he's very quick.
16:43He's very quick witted.
16:44So you can't heckle Jason Beeler.
16:46He's, he's just one of those guys.
16:48And from him, I've learned a lot about timing.
16:50I learned a lot about the pacing and how to deliver something.
16:54And so from that, I think I gained not only the confidence, but just the perspective on
16:59how to deliver comedy lines.
17:01It's especially you don't rush it.
17:03You keep it moving, but you don't rush it.
17:06You know, there's certain aspects of it that I learned along the way naturally and organically.
17:09So I think that helped me a lot and pulling off the standup thing and the room was packed.
17:13So of course I was nervous as hell because if I bomb, this is really not going to look
17:18good, but, uh, it was a lot of fun and I would do it again, but I would have to do it
17:23with Don and Courtney just because they're just amazing at doing this kind of stuff.
17:27So speaking of Jason, he wanted me to ask you, how come whenever you guys are together,
17:30he's always referred to as the sexier one.
17:33Oh boy.
17:35I was hoping he wouldn't come up in my, every time I do interviews, he always has to find
17:41a way to sneak in there.
17:43Yeah.
17:44Just, yeah.
17:45Okay.
17:46Let's, I have no comment for that.
17:48How did you meet him?
17:50You guys have been doing a lot of this, this, you guys have been doing the collaborations
17:54for quite a while now.
17:55I've known Jason since 1988, which is crazy that I've known him almost as long as I've
18:00been doing this.
18:01I've known him as long as he's been doing this for a living.
18:04Uh, I met him when he was 18 and I was doing a project that's like, it was supposed to be
18:09a solo album or something at the time in 1988.
18:12And, um, just by association of, of his former bass player, Tom, that was also in Saigon kick.
18:18I tried him out first for the gig that didn't work out, but he was playing me some songs
18:23and demos that he was working on with somebody with some guys back in Florida.
18:27I'm like, damn, who's the guitar player?
18:29And he said, it's a guy named Jason Beal.
18:30I'm like, give me his number.
18:32And so Jason flew out the project belt went belly up.
18:35It didn't happen.
18:36But from that, I started my association with Jason.
18:39And then the, uh, the very first talisman tour in 1990, the guitar player did the record,
18:44but, uh, he didn't want to do the tour for whatever reason.
18:46And he wasn't going to be part of the tour and Marcel said, we need a guitar player.
18:50I said, I know the guy I called Jason.
18:52We both flew to Sweden and, and we've been working together kind of hit and miss on and
18:56off since 1990.
18:58So it's, it's, it's insane how long I've known this guy.
19:01He was already starting Saigon kick was kind of a, uh, it's kind of a stub stub toe in his
19:08life that he wanted to kind of walk away from.
19:10And he started doing the singer songwriter version of those songs himself.
19:14And every time he'd come to LA, I'd join him for a song or two.
19:17And then a song or two turned into half the set and then it turned into a whole set.
19:21And then we like, we're onto something where he enjoyed the fact that somebody could sing
19:25those Saigon kick songs with him and harmonize with them and turn it.
19:29And obviously the banter turned into a more of a comedy thing.
19:33And we're at the point now where the comedy is so structured, so high in the actual set list.
19:39Now we're kind of joking, but we're not that we're trying to get through an entire set without
19:44even having to do music anymore.
19:45Because at this point we can do an hour set.
19:49And I think we play like five songs because the rest damping off each other and, and doing
19:54silly things to make the audience laugh.
19:56You guys are like the unplugged version of steel Panther.
19:58We, we, we kind of, we're modeling what we're doing more along kind of what tenacious D flight
20:05of the Concord it's, it's funny, but it's not forced.
20:08It's not, we're not trying to be, you know, we're not trying to be carrot top and comedians
20:13in that sense where we're just trying to use the, the wit and the cleverness and, and
20:19even social situations to turn it into an actual set list.
20:23And, and then once in a while we play some songs.
20:25So yeah, on the monsters of rock, you actually did a lot.
20:28You did the, you did a, you did a couple sets for your 40th anniversary, right?
20:31And you did some stuff with Jason and you did your comedy thing.
20:33You, they had you working, huh?
20:35Every time I do the, the monsters, I'm the only one that doesn't actually get to enjoy
20:40everybody else.
20:41They do two shows and the rest of the days they're out sitting by the pool.
20:44Like now I'm jumping around doing this, that, and the other guest appearances, comedy
20:48standup.
20:49It's, it really is.
20:51It's more exhausting for me to do the cruise than it is to enjoy it.
20:55But, uh, you know, not only did, did you, but I saw a lot of people, uh, wanting to
20:59get their picture with Glenn Hughes and posted, I mean, I mean, that guy is, he just gets
21:03better with age, doesn't he?
21:05It's amazing.
21:05He is a freak of nature.
21:06And I say that with all love and respect, I've known Glenn for a long time.
21:11Uh, and we, we go back a long time.
21:14Glenn and I did a duet together on one of my first, my first solo album with Frontier is
21:19back in 2002.
21:20We did a cover of the Sly and Family Stone song.
21:22I want to take you higher.
21:24So I've known Glenn for many, many moons.
21:26I haven't seen him in a long time.
21:27So it was great to finally see him again and catch up on the cruise.
21:30And the cruise is, it's kind of like NAMM show or, or, or playing a real festival, except
21:37that you actually get days to hang out with these people.
21:39When you play a festival, you're in and out, you're, you're in the day you play and you're
21:42out the next day to another festival or you're doing other gigs.
21:45We're literally stuck on a barge for five days.
21:49So we get the chance to break bread, you know, have dinner, catch up, talk about the family
21:53and all that stuff that we don't normally get to do because everybody's so busy and everybody's
21:57always working and on the road, et cetera, et cetera.
21:59So I really enjoyed that aspect of the cruise.
22:03Like I said, it's, but it's like the NAMM show.
22:05You go to the NAMM show and to get from point A to point B, it takes you probably an hour
22:09because everybody wants a photo.
22:11Everybody wants an autograph and it's great.
22:13But at some point you're like, I just need to go to the bathroom or I just need to get
22:18a drink.
22:19I'm really thirsty.
22:19I need to take my meds or something and everything takes an hour.
22:23So it's, it's got, it's, it's plus and minuses, but I really enjoy being a part of it.
22:27I've been doing the monsters cruises since so, geez, I think it's 2017, 16.
22:32And it's, I love doing it every year.
22:34It's becoming like my own, like a TSO situation for me.
22:38Yeah, no, that's great.
22:39I got to get on one of those.
22:39I haven't done a monsters cruise or a rock cruise yet, but I do like the cruises.
22:44It's probably a little bit different than the ones I've been on for sure.
22:48But on that cruise, I saw that you posted a bunch of other people posted.
22:51First of all, the darkness, you said you'd never seen them and also extreme.
22:55How good were they?
22:57The darkness are phenomenal.
22:58I, I, I'm a late comer.
23:01I discovered this band.
23:02And I kind of brushed them off as kind of a here today, gone today kind of thing back
23:07in the day, you know, they had the one hit wonder in the U S they didn't really have any
23:11other hits like that song that the level of that song here in the U S.
23:15So I kind of brushed them off as they were, you know, they were already here and gone.
23:19And as I've seen them not only continue and a friend is playing drums, I've known Roger
23:25Taylor, Brian May from the queen for many years.
23:28So obviously I know their children just the same.
23:30And Rufus Taylor is the drummer of the darkness to see him get that gig and to see them continue
23:34with the prosper and continue as well, if not better than they were back in the day.
23:39I was really excited to see them and they did not disappoint.
23:42What a great band.
23:43What an entertaining show.
23:44Justin Hawkins is one of the greatest front men out there in terms of his banter, his wit
23:49and obviously the talent.
23:51He's very talented individual.
23:52So I was so happy to see them extreme.
23:55I've seen a billion times.
23:56It's one of my favorite bands on the planet.
23:58And it's that's, that's another one of those bucket list things.
24:02I would love to work with Nuno or be a part of extreme in some way, just because I just
24:09love this band.
24:09I love all their music.
24:10I love them as people.
24:11And so it's always great to see them as well.
24:14And they just killed.
24:16I think I saw Gary.
24:17Well, I know I saw Gary Sharon last year with Joe Perry.
24:20I don't know if I've ever really seen extreme and I've never interviewed a Nuno or nothing
24:23like that.
24:23You just mentioned the guys from queen.
24:25How good is that?
24:27The Bohemian Rhapsody biopic.
24:29I thought that was like one of the best ones I've ever seen.
24:32I really, really enjoyed it.
24:33I liked the way that it turned out because I know they were dealing with a lot of different,
24:38a lot of changes with directors and act lead actors, et cetera, here and there.
24:42And I was concerned that it would have what they were hoping it would have in the end.
24:48And I think they really pulled it off.
24:49The only thing that bothered me about it, there were a few timeline issues, you know,
24:52where there's certain parts of the studio where they're talking about live eight or
24:56certain song or a certain album.
24:58And Freddie's character didn't look that way during that time.
25:02But as a movie, you have two hours to basically cover 40 years of a career and people.
25:10It's impossible to get everything exactly the way it's supposed to be unless it's a documentary.
25:14And the movie's not a documentary.
25:16So it works in that sense.
25:19And people who are not diehards, like I know so many little details and bits that,
25:23oh, wait, that's not how it went down.
25:25So for others, it was, I think it was incredible.
25:28I think it turned out really well and many accolades to them for pulling this off.
25:32You just mentioned Live Aid.
25:34Did you see that Netflix special that's out right now,
25:36the making of the We Are the World documentary?
25:38What did you think of that?
25:39I was so excited.
25:40When I heard about this, I was so excited when it was coming out.
25:43And I was, as soon as it was available, I popped that thing on and I was glued to it.
25:47I loved it because there are,
25:49there is a documentary out there from back in the day that I think they released on VHS,
25:53you know, the making of the We Are the World, USA for Africa.
25:58But this was really in-depth and you just, you got to see the real nitty gritty.
26:03Even the fact that they were talking about, there was no song.
26:05They were going in there like, oh, geez, we have all these people coming in
26:08and we're not ready for this.
26:10But we have to, you never let them see you sweat.
26:12You got to show you're ready for it.
26:14And they just kind of went with it, went with it until they finally had it.
26:18Yeah.
26:18And that was when you were just starting out your career.
26:20I think you were in the business, what, two or three years by then, right?
26:23That would have been what, 83?
26:25Oh, was it better?
26:26Okay.
26:26I was thinking 86.
26:27But yeah, you might be right.
26:28Yeah, you might be right.
26:29But just before you start.
26:30No, because the hearing aid one, the one, the metal version of that came out in 85.
26:35And I remember because Yngwie was doing that.
26:37We were flying to get to the first show in Europe for the European tour with Yngwie.
26:43And that would have been like early 85.
26:45And he had to go to LA and then fly the Concord to get there on time to, when the Concord was still flying to get to us on time to start the tour.
26:54So that would have had to have been 83 or 84 just before the trickle effect from all these AIDS things, from live aid to farm aid to Japan aid.
27:05Everybody had an aid to something at that time.
27:08And yeah, that was when I was first, like, while I was still in high school and all that stuff was going on.
27:13But it was kind of cool to look back and see all those different celebrities.
27:16And some of the people that were on that song, I kind of forgot about.
27:20Well, I've said it many a time.
27:22I go, Kim Carnes is one lucky SOB because when you think she was really only known for Betty Davis's eyes and she's in one of the most iconic pop songs in history.
27:34I mean, there are so many other artists that could have or should have been part of that.
27:37And she was lucky enough to get in there.
27:39Cyndi Lauper is another one.
27:40She had a few hits during her time and she's still active, et cetera.
27:43But to be part of that, you could have chosen so many more Springsteens, more Dylons, more Ray Charles.
27:51You could have chosen more along those lines as opposed to the flavor of the month or the year.
27:55And there were some really lucky individuals that got in there.
27:58I'm just happy to see Perry got in there because even though the one line he sings in that song, I was like, oh, yes, God has sung.
28:07You've met him before, right?
28:09I've met Perry twice and way before my tenure with Neil or with Journey.
28:15And he was always sweet as anything to me.
28:17And actually, yeah, I did meet him.
28:20The second time I met him was like 90 or 91 or something like that.
28:27So it was way before I even met or knew Neil Sean or part of that camp in that world.
28:33Yeah.
28:33Yeah.
28:34And you didn't hear anything from him from your tenure?
28:36He didn't know comments or anything?
28:37He did speak up when I was out of the band at that time, like a few months after I was out.
28:45And he didn't do many interviews, especially before he did the Traces album.
28:48He wasn't known to do many interviews.
28:50He did an interview and my name was brought up and he was very, very kind.
28:55He basically said of all the singers or anybody that the band could have gotten, he really enjoyed what I brought to the band.
29:02And he thought I was a good representation of where the band could have actually gone.
29:08And it was really nice of me.
29:09He didn't have to say anything about it.
29:11He could have just avoided the question altogether.
29:12And he was really gracious with his comments and his reply.
29:16So this week we, we lost a couple musicians, Eric, Eric Carmen, of course, you just posted about and TM Steven.
29:22So Eric Carmen, like he's one of these guys, like, I guess I grew up on his music, but I didn't really know that much about him.
29:28Did you know him or anything?
29:30No, I never knew him.
29:31And we, we only know that, you know, it's one of those artists.
29:34We only know the music.
29:35We only know their hits and what they left behind.
29:38And, uh, I mean, a song like all by myself, it's so iconic, especially the long version.
29:43I love the long version that you never get to hear on radio, but obviously when Celine Dion took that song, she took it to another level.
29:49It just reminds you what an amazing song it was.
29:53And, and when you go back to the original Eric Carmen version, it's, it really just resonates so well, even today.
30:00Yeah.
30:01Well, I'll tell you what, Jeff, I'm going to cut you loose here because, uh, like the first time I met you back with Sons of Apollo,
30:06you guys are playing at the forge, I think is the first time I met you a few years back.
30:10I could talk to you for hours about everything.
30:12And I know you guys have to do, and I got stuff to do, but, uh, art of anarchy token lounge on March 27th.
30:17Let there be anarchy is out right now.
30:20And, uh, we really appreciate your time.
30:21And I can't wait to hang with you guys in a couple of weeks.
30:24Meltdown.
30:24It's always a privilege and a pleasure.
30:26And, uh, I'm looking forward to, I hope you dig the album.
30:29I hope you dig the show and looking forward to hanging again.